US 12,244,079 B1
Circularly polarized solderless antenna with frequency-scalable circuit
Justin Long, Greenbelt, MD (US); Victor Marrero-Fontanez, Greenbelt, MD (US); Wei-Chung Huang, College Park, MD (US); and Cornelis Du Toit, Ellicott City, MD (US)
Assigned to United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA, Washington, DC (US)
Filed by United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA, Washington, DC (US)
Filed on Sep. 9, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/941,288.
Int. Cl. H01Q 9/04 (2006.01)
CPC H01Q 9/0414 (2013.01) [H01Q 9/04 (2013.01); H01Q 9/0421 (2013.01)] 6 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An antenna, comprising:
a pair of disks spaced apart from one another and arranged in a vertical stack, each of said disks being electrically conductive; and
a self-supporting, branched-path feed circuit spaced apart from said pair of said disks, said feed circuit having
a signal-receiving point,
a first signal path from said signal-receiving point to a first excitation point,
a second signal path from said signal-receiving point to a second excitation point, said second signal path including a portion of said first signal path and being longer than said first signal path,
a third signal path from said signal-receiving point to a third excitation point, said third signal path being unique with respect to said first signal path and said second signal path, said third signal path being longer than said second signal path,
a fourth signal path from said signal-receiving point to a fourth excitation point, said fourth signal path including a portion of said third signal path and being longer than said third signal path,
an electrically-conductive post coupled to said disks and said feed circuit for mechanical support of said vertical stack and for electrically grounding said disks and said feed circuit, and
a ground partition, wherein said disks, and said feed circuit are disposed in one of an air environment and a vacuum environment wherein,
when a microwave signal is adapted to be supplied to said signal receiving point, power of the microwave signal is equally divided and distributed firstly to said first excitation point, secondly to said second excitation point, thirdly to said third excitation point, and fourthly to said fourth excitation point, wherein each path segment traverses from its respective signal-receiving point to its respective excitation point via an impedance-matching transformer.